Friday, June 22, 2012

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was forced to leave office after the country's Senate condemned him in an impeachment trial on Friday.

By a vote of 39 in favor and four opposed, the Senate concluded that Lugo was guilty of "poor performance" over several incidents including allegedly mishandling deadly clashes one week ago between peasant farmers and police.

According to the Paraguayan constitution Vice President Federico Franco should be sworn in to office immediatly.

(Update: Franco was sworn in to the presidency on Friday evening.

In an interview with CNN he refuted claims that the ouster of his predecessor was done according to the constitution and was "not a coup."

"I hope that in future interventions it is recognized that the actions were done within the legal framework of the country," added Franco).

In a speech from the presidential palace Lugo said that he accepted the Senate's ruling and is "willing to respond to my actions" as a former president. Yet he accused his opponents of acting "cowardly" and added that today's decision was a "blow against Paraguayan history (and) democracy."

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Before getting to today’s headlines, I would like to take a moment to apologize for the unjustifiable lack of posts on Wednesday. Posting will be very light today as it has been for the past few weeks. Yet hopefully I’ll catch up over the weekend on several stories from this week including Julian Assange’s request for asylum in Ecuador, the upcoming Mexican presidential election and the latest from the Copa Libertadores.

Here now the news:

* Uruguay: The Minister of Defense announced a crime-fighting proposal that would legalize the selling of marijuana to users registered with the government.

* Mexico: A House committee voted along party lines to recommend that Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt regarding the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

* Brazil: A state prosecutor wants the government to award $83 million in “moral and material damages” to the indigenous Guyraroka community.

* Haiti: Researchers linked a second strain of cholera to 2010-2011 epidemics that killed an estimated 7500 people in Haiti.